How did Tianjin local expert Zhao Yuxiang realize his dream of becoming wealthy?
As the Spring Festival drew nearer, the bright lingzhi mushrooms and plump oyster mushrooms in the greenhouse had been almost entirely booked by customers, and Zhao Yuxiang, hailed by villagers as a "local expert," could not stop grinning in front of the reporter's camera. "I am happy not only because my edible mushroom cultivation has yielded a great harvest, but even more because the dream I promised my fellow villagers, of growing wealthy together, has shown real results."
When people talk about Zhao Yuxiang, a farmer from Shuangkou No. 2 Village, Shuangkou Town, Beichen District, they all give him a thumbs-up. Now in his seventies, he was born with a disability in his right hand, yet he has always strived relentlessly, devoting himself to the study and spread of agricultural technology, and in 2005 he was even awarded the title of "Tianjin Advanced Worker in Science Popularization."
The reporter saw that Zhao Yuxiang's bedside and desk were covered with science and education publications and notes on his experiences. In recent years, he has tried to tackle edible mushroom cultivation technology with initial success. In particular, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward the Chinese Dream, which gave Zhao Yuxiang a dream of his own - he must do everything he can to blaze a trail in edible mushroom cultivation and make it an industry that brings wealth to the fellow villagers around him.
In order to share his cultivation experience with his fellow villagers, Zhao Yuxiang holds various specialized training classes on his own at irregular times every year. A villager told the reporter, "The biggest feature of his training classes is that he guarantees to teach, guarantees you will learn, and charges no fees. When he meets students from elsewhere who are struggling, he even spends his own money to feed them while teaching." Whenever a fellow villager comes to him for advice, Zhao Yuxiang always recounts his knowledge in vivid detail, full of enthusiasm and never tiring of it: "My greatest enjoyment is nothing other than the fact that the cultivation methods I have figured out can help the fellow villagers around me all make money."
After agricultural experts came to the village to inspect the edible mushroom cultivation, they said that the lingzhi mushrooms carefully cultivated by Zhao Yuxiang have strong strains and antibodies and are easy to grow, with no pesticide damage or pollution throughout the growth process, and the spore powder harvested is of excellent quality and high economic value. Driven and helped by this "local expert," Shuangkou Town has developed more than 100 edible mushroom growing households cultivating oyster mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, lingzhi mushrooms and others, with an annual output of more than 2 million kg and benefits reaching 1.6 million yuan. But Zhao Yuxiang is not content with the status quo and continues to bury himself in research, and in his spare time he has compiled his cultivation experience into a book, hoping that in 2016 he can help more fellow villagers join the ranks of growing wealthy together.